Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The AP story regarding the Duke lacrosse team returning to the playing field this past weekend for a scrimmage had some good quotes from Nina Zash. She is the mother of Matthew Zash, who was one of the lacrosse team captains last season before graduating.

"The (players) need to get their dignity and their pride back and show the world who they really are," Zash said. "They're a group of fine young men."

Zash wore a hat with the words "Duke Lacrosse Innocent" on the front, and the numbers 6, 13 and 45 were on the back. Those numbers represent the three players who were indicted for the alleged rape: David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann.

The hats were made by the parents of the players, and Zash said that she was still bitter over the way the players have been portrayed.

"It's the Duke rape hoax," Zash said. "The (players) haven't changed their story at all — not one line, not one word has been changed. I don't think the alleged victim can say the same thing. This has brought the parents together in a way that nobody would ever want to be bonded together. We all need this (season) — the parents, the kids who graduated, and the kids on the field."

Damn the fact checking again, but is the AP's use of Nina Zash's quote, "It's the Duke rape hoax," the first time the words "Duke rape hoax" appeared in a MSM (main-stream-media) article about this case? You can use TJN as a reference for a fact checker job if you can find an earlier reference.

Sure, it's only a quote, but a journey of a thousand miles starts with one small step.

Back in August, an unscientific TJN poll found a few people who thought that the MSM might get around to calling this case a hoax before May of next year. Today, that day of redemption seems closer than it did in August.